Monday, July 15, 2013

The Mild Mild West

When judges on talent shows open their comments with “Let
me just start by saying, you look great!” I tend to take the cynical view that
they really don’t have much worthwhile to say about the contestant’s rendition
of a pop classic.

So, following my rewatch of Doctor Who’s Western entry for Series 7, A Town Called Mercy, let me just start by saying, it looks great.
No, it really does, I’m not just saying that. The production team in days of
yore could never have afforded all that location work in Spain. Visually, it
captures the Western well and primes the viewer for some terrific rootin-tootin
adventure.

But essentially all we really get is a passable rendition
of a popular classic.

Just as DinosaursOn A Spaceship riffs on daft Hollywood actioners, this riffs on classic
Westerns – High Noon,Rio Bravo,El Dorado spring immediately to mind – and many a Star Trek level morality play.
Unfortunately, to go with the convincing Western visuals, they choose to
confirm these sci-fi roots by featuring a very Star Trek alien (human with token cosmetic feature) and a Star Trek Borg gunslinger. They then go
on to incorporate a fairly typical Star
Trek feeble ploy into the Doctor’s cunning resolution. Although in fairness
to Star Trek I don’t recall an
episode where people stuck crinkle-cut chips on their noses and wore dangly
ear-rings to pass as Bajorans. But I stand by to be corrected on that score.

In short, it’s all too familiar and like many a talent
show performer it’s really not bringing much that’s new to the borrowed
material. There are strings of entertaining and amusing notes (the Doctor’s
relationship with his equine companion, Susan, for one thing; “anyone who’s not an
American, throw down your gun” etc) but it lacks the depth and emotion that a
morality tale of this (potential) complexity deserves.

A shame, because there are touches of brilliance. It’s
beautifully framed as a legend of the West, narrated in part by the great
granddaughter of the young girl we see momentarily during the tale. There’s a
dramatic start with the cyborg hunting down one victim and declaring there is
only one more to be terminated: the Doctor. Even if the cyborg does look A Bit
Rubbish (TM).

It’s when the Doctor shows up in town and reveals he’s an
alien that it all starts to unravel a bit. The residents turn on him and cart
him off to the town limits, despite the fact that he’s obviously not the alien
doctor with whom they’re familiar. The one who’s been with them for weeks and
has given them ‘lectrics’ and saved them from a cholera epidemic. The one with
the snakey green tattoo on his face. That one.

It’s an easy mistake to make. After all, the cyborg –
developed as an advanced weapon by said alien doctor – makes a similar error
later on.

You know how it is: you’re a cyborg out for revenge on
your creators, you’ve made it your mission to hunt down these men and your
computerised brain has only sufficient processing power to cope with one
identifying mark to single out your targets. Well, except for when the sheriff
dons the garb of the alien doctor to act as a decoy. Then you’ll lock onto that
instead.

But you don’t want to hurt innocents. Which is why you
set up the perimeter around the town and are laying siege to the good folks of
Mercy, coming for anyone who steps over the line and (probably) starving them
to death until they hand over your sworn enemy.

Actually, it’s kind of a ridiculous setup when you think
about it, isn’t it? But never mind. You’re a deranged cyborg, your
programming’s faulty, you can be excused.

Other characters meanwhile are obliged to act rashly
simply to inject drama into the proceedings. The writer (Toby Whithouse)
hamstrings himself somewhat with the scenario. He’s written himself into a
corner of a jail cell. In a siege nothing much happens unless the besieged take
action. So naturally the Doctor has to throw a wobbly, march alien war criminal
Kahler Jex to his execution and hold a gun on him. So close on the heels of his
execution of Solomon (in DinosaursOn A Spaceship) we really have to worry about the Doctor’s
mental health. And we have to have the strange situation where Amy is having to
remind the Doctor (at gunpoint) that he doesn’t just go around killing people.

At which point, Sheriff Isaac gives his life to save the
alien war criminal. This is a waste, not just because Ben Browder is the only
convincing American in the cast (not to mention great – but forgive my bias,
I’m a Farscape fan.) But primarily
because his death isn’t dwelt on nearly sufficiently. It should be the cog on
which the whole plot turns and while it probably is the trigger which
eventually persuades Jex to sacrifice his own life not enough is made of it to
properly underpin Jex’s subsequent actions.

There’s a very familiar scene where the townsfolk gather
outside the jail to try to coerce the Doctor into handing his ‘prisoner’ over,
followed by a semi-interesting discussion between the Doctor and Jex, lending
some insight into the Kahler views on the afterlife. But it’s all a little
‘lite’ and questions of alien war criminals and justice and general Star Trek level morality have all been
addressed more proficiently and substantially by the likes of Babylon 5. (See Passing Through Gethsemane or Deathstalker.)
It’s possible they’ve also been done better in Star Trek.

Whithouse is a better writer than this would have you
believe. While the alien invasion plot of School Reunion was weak, his ability to write a moving and affecting emotional
story was never in doubt. Here, likewise, the human moments are the
strongpoints but they’re not nearly strong enough.

There’s some great dialogue, Smith is in his element,
clearly having lots of fun and there are plenty of highlights that add up to a
better episode than the impression given by this short review.

But even at its brightest and best, I was left with the
feeling that more could have been done at every turn. Like I said, it hits some
decent notes but finished, for me, as that most difficult of standards on which
to comment: the distinctly average.

In a sense it’s a bit like Phil Collins’ Another Day In Paradise: it raises
profound issues but rarely rises above the superficial. And it’s a karaoke
version at that.

Maybe that’s the right depth for a Saturday evening
sci-fi adventure show, for an audience expected to tune into The Voice or The X Factor after Doctor
Who.

But I wanted more. What can I say, some of the judges on
this Doctor Who panel are really
demanding.

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About Me

Born in Penzance in 1967. From the age of about three I was probably dreaming of writing for Doctor Who. Certainly it wasn't a case of just watching it: I'd go to bed with all sorts of adventures and story possibilities buzzing around in my head. From the age of eleven, I knew, whenever any aunts and uncles asked the "What do you want to do when you grow up?" question, the stock replies of jet pilot, train driver, astronaut were never going to be good enough for me. "I want to be a writer", I always said. And, what do you know, I am.